Vault of the Dark One
The Vault of the Dark One, also known as the Heart of Darkness,http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20151013abc03/ is an Enchanted Forest location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the fifteenth episode of the third season. History In actuality, the first Dark One was Nimue, and she constructed the vault for her own usage. If the legend is to be believed, then the first glimpse the world got of the Dark One was Nimue emerging from the vault she had made. The Vault of the Dark One, located in the ground as a circular seal, can restore a Dark One by sacrificing a life. It's not known if the prior Dark One, Zoso, ever used the vault. When Rumplestiltskin gains power as the Dark One, he gains a key from the vault, which is hidden in a book in his castle. During his reign as king of Camelot, Arthur becomes consumed with finding Excalibur's missing half, the Dark One's Dagger, so much that he begins neglecting his wife, Guinevere. When he thinks that he discovered the location of the dagger, Lancelot prepares to leave to go there, but Arthur insists he stay to protect Guinevere, while he himself goes instead. That night, Guinevere finds a Magic Gauntlet in Merlin's tower that reveals the dagger's location as Arthur's greatest weakness. Intending to get the dagger, she tries to leave, before Lancelot agrees to accompany her. The gauntlet takes them to the Vault of the Dark One, and after entering into it, Guinevere saves Lancelot from the Darkness. Relieved to not have lost him, she kisses him, before apologizing and stating that it can never happen again. And from one door in the vault, they find the dagger on a table stand, but it's protected by a barrier. In exchange for the gauntlet, Rumplestiltskin offers Guinevere enchanted sand to give the illusion that Excalibur is whole. Lancelot begs her not to, but she accepts the deal and gives the magic gauntlet to the Dark One. }} }} }} After Lancelot comes back to Camelot to warn Mary Margaret about Arthur, he leads her to the Vault to keep the dagger inside the Idyllic Garden safe. Lancelot cautions Mary Margaret against putting the dagger on the table stand since it has a barrier. When she insists on trying, he tries to persuade her into letting him do it instead. Upon seeing her hesitation, Lancelot questions if she doesn't trust him, but before she can answer, Arthur arrives, having followed them. Arthur threatens to kill Lancelot unless Mary Margaret gives him the dagger, and after he moves to make good on his threat, she finally hands it over. While relishing in his victory, Arthur tries to summon Emma, only for it to fail, as Mary Margaret admits the dagger is fake, before David corners Arthur from behind. After a couple of days, Emma tethers an almost dying Hook to Excalibur which was tethered to Merlin by Zelena. She, refusing to accept this, teleports with him to the middlemist field, hoping to tether him to Excalibur and save his life, even if it means making him a Dark One like her. After Hook passes out, Emma sobs that being without him is not good enough for her. Using the sword, she bonds Hook's life to it, causing him to disappear. İnside the vault, he wakes up but suddenly the Darkness surrounds him and makes him recall what Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold has done to him in his whole life. As the anger inside him grows more for the Crocodile, he reemerges from the vault as a Dark One. After a short time, Merlin, Lancelot and the other Storybrooke inhabitants travel to the Vault of the Dark One to find Hook, but they find him already gone. Then Merlin informs them that the Vault has already accepted Hook as a second Dark One. }} Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Notes *The symbols on the vaultFile:315VaultOpens.png includes the tomoe, the triquetra, the triangle, the Eye of Providence (one of the symbols that Guinevere presses to open the vault), the pentagram (which Guinevere also presses) and the sun (which Guinevere also presses). Circling all the other symbols is the Ouroboros, which represents cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself — a reference to the way the Darkness is inherited from one host to the next, and the Dark One's eternal life. *The Vault of the Dark One is only a day's ride from Camelot. *The vault appears in the title card for "Birth".File:508Title.png *The scene where Hook rises from the vault, is a combination of new footage and recycled footage from the scene where Emma rises from the vault in "The Dark Swan". The shot where the darkness begins to manifest into human form,File:501EmmaEmerges.png File:508HookEmerges.png the following wide-shot where the transformation continues,File:501EmmaEmerges2.png File:508HookEmerges2.png and the following close-up shot where the camera pans up the manifesting darkness,File:501EmmaEmerges3.png File:508HookEmerges3.png are exactly the same in both scenes, the only difference being the lighting, and the third shot being shorter during Hook's scene (in Emma's scene, the camera pans up to Emma's face; in Hook's scene, the shot ends before it reaches the face). |-|Props Notes= Props Notes *The cover of the book which holds the key to the vaultFile:315Book.png shows an image of the Gnostic deity Abraxas. The text and the image is a replica of the engraving on one of the Abraxas stones. **The page with the keyFile:315ItsAHidingSpot.png is a transcript of a page from Book VIII of De Civitate DeiDe Civitate Dei, Augustine of Hippo, p. 102. Facsimilie by Google Books (The City of God), a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by early Christian theologian and philosopher Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth century. ***The page contains part 1, and the start of part 2, from Book VIII. An English translation can be found on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45304/45304-h/45304-h.htm#Page_305 *The bookFile:315OnlyRestore.png that Belle used to identify the symbol on Neal's hand is written in Latin. Appearances References Category:Once Upon a Time Locations